An account of two very different Cornish tea rooms during Chocolate Week. Both are off the beaten track, but well worth a visit. And not just for chocolate week either.
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s National Chocolate Week this week and I wanted to pay homage to it. Chocolate is the food of the gods and this is a chocolate blog after all. It would be a pretty poor show not to take part in this celebratory week.
National Chocolate Week
Last year, I attended an excellent tea and chocolate tasting event on the Tregothnan Estate. The previous year I created my own chocolate event, a chocolate cupcake tour. However, what with one thing and another, I really didn’t have time to organise much this year. I had loads of cakes to plan for and bake for a start.
Looking at the events calendar, there wasn’t a lot going on in Cornwall. But there were a couple of Cornish tea rooms taking part and both sounded tempting.
Chocolate Week, now in its eighth year, is sponsored mainly by Divine, a Fairtrade chocolate company which is 45% owned by it’s farmers. Launched in 1998, this was the UK’s first fair trade chocolate company and it has been going from strength to strength ever since. This week is all about indulgence, but indulgence in good quality and ethical chocolate cannot be a bad thing.
Today is the last day of Chocolate Week, so you still have a chance to take part. If you are in London you have Chocolate Unwrapped. I’m trying very hard not to feel too deprived down in this remote part of the country, although there are of course certain compensations.
So to yesterday. I had a really busy but really enjoyable day and packed loads in, including a couple of chocolate week celebrations and far too much food. I spent the morning finishing off and decorating the cakes which I needed to deliver by 12:00.
You can find out all about it in this post, a bonanza of bakes. Suffice it to say, I managed to get them completed and delivered in more or less good condition by 12:15.
Cowslip Cafe
We were now free to head off to our first chocolate destination, the Cowslip Cafe, a tearoom I was very pleased to discover. Set on a working farm together with a needlecraft workshop and shop selling all things material and quilted. It was a quiet location with lovely views across the valley to Launceston.
The menu was interesting and the food good. Many of the vegetables used in the dishes were grown in an adjacent garden. We sat outside in the sunshine sheltered beneath a turf roof and enjoyed a most fabulous lunch.
The chocolate offerings of the day were a white chocolate cheesecake and a chocolate roulade. We had one of each to share for pudding. Well what else could we do to support Chocolate Week? The white chocolate cheesecake was particularly good.
Rectory Cornish Tea Rooms
Feeling full, we headed off to our next chocolate destination which entailed a long drive through Cornwall’s picturesque (read tortuous) lane network to the wind blasted and furthest flung part of North Cornwall – Morwenstow.
This hamlet is renowned as the home of the Reverend Hawker (1803-1875), an opium smoking eccentric whose activities included dressing up as a mermaid to encourage tourists to the area. He was by all accounts a bit of a case.
He is, however, well known in church circles for introducing the Harvest Festival to Churches in 1843. We checked out the gothic rectory he had built, complete with church spire chimneys. He must have had some cash, because it was enormous. You can find out a bit more about his eccentric behaviour over at Feast & Festivals.
We sat out in the autumnal sunshine again, this time at the Rectory Tea Rooms, an award winning establishment recognised by the Tea Guild. We could see why. The tea menu was not only present but was quite extensive – heavens to Hawker, it was even in the cake we ate.
Yes, we managed to force down a piece of Divine Chocolate and Earl Grey Torte (we did share this one) and Divine it really was. CT partook of Orange Oolong and I supped White Monkey. This wonderful establishment is also set on a working farm, an organic one this time, so I was doubly pleased.
Our rapidly expanding girths were in need of trimming, so we set off in the late afternoon sunshine to walk the cliffs. The views were stunning, the North Coast is particularly dramatic in this area, although rather hard on the knees.
We paid a brief visit to Hawker’s Hut, a small bothy set into the cliffs – perhaps this is where he smoked his opium, wrote poetry and watched the smuggling activities of his parishioners.
With the sun sinking fairly rapidly, we set off back to our first stop. The party was now in full swing involving plentiful supplies of food of all sorts (including chocolate cake), drink and Breton dancing.
The Rectory Tea Rooms, we were already aware of, but it’s thanks to Chocolate Week we’ve now found a new cafe well worth revisiting. And because of the special occasion we both had mini 70% Divine dark chocolates to take home with us from both establishments.
Other Cornish Food Days Out You Might Like
- Afternoon tea at The Alverton
- As I was going to St Ives
- Feeling full in Fowey
- The Glorious Glynn Valley
- The Hub Cafe: Liskeard’s hidden gem
- Watergate Bay
Cornish Tea Rooms: Over To You
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you ever visit either of these Cornish tea rooms, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Or do you know of any other hidden gems? Do share photos on social media too and tag me @Choclette8, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
cityhippyfarmgirl says
Love all the chocolatey goodness, but best of all love those cliffs. How lovely to be walking along there in the afternoon sun.
Johanna GGG says
Sounds wonderful – I love hearing about reverend hawker and am very jealous of all your activities when I just don’t have the energy to get myself going to any festivals or cafes this weekend – a trip to the suprmarket will be as exciting as outing as I will have
Choclette says
Oxslip – well worth a visit.
Laura – I’m very lucky to live down here. Do you always stay in the same place? Still 4 days left to get your chilli challenge entry in.
Sneige – Cornwall is most certainly worth a visit.
Sneige says
A proper way to celebrate the chocolate week! I’ve never been to Cornwall but I see how I am missing! Have to visit soon!
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says
Love your photos and happy to say I spend a week in Cornwall every Easter. What a stunning place it is!
I really want to enter your choc chilli challenge so must get my skates on!
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says
Love your photos and happy to say I spend a week in Cornwall every Easter. What a stunning place it is!
I really want to enter your choc chilli challenge so must get my skates on!
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says
Love your photos and happy to say I spend a week in Cornwall every Easter. What a stunning place it is!
I really want to enter your choc chilli challenge so must get my skates on!
oxslip says
I didn’t know that and I’m glad I do! Cowslip cafe sounds amazing, more destinations for my next trip down to see my folks
Choclette says
Angie – Divine is the word 😉
Kath – Thank you. There are a lot of tales to tell about the Rev Hawker!
Astra Libris – Thank you. Isn’t it good to have an excuse to indulge?
CC – those trees are so indicative of the North Cornish coast.
Gloria – thank you.
Karen – oh you probably know more about the Rev Hawker than I do. Would love to meet up for tea and cake when you next come down.
C – It was a totally brilliant day – really enjoyed it. And actually, living in London for 4 years was plenty enough for me.
A Trifle Rushed – he he, chocolate in everyone it most certainly was 😉
LittleLoaf – oh yes indeed – every day should be chocolate day. Your ice-cream does indeed sound divine.
Rosanna – thanks for commenting. I think 4 cake stops would have been a bit much even for me. I did want to attend the chocolate workshop at Widemouth Bay, but couldn’t make that date. Thanks for arranging what you did – I’ve discovered a lovely tea room I didn’t know about and revisited one I hadn’t been to in many a long year.
Rosanna says
Hello everyone, it’s Rosanna from Divine Chocolate. What a great post – I’m so glad you made it to the two tearooms. My fiance’s family live in Holsworthy so I wanted to arrange a few Chocolate Week happenings at places we’d all visited. There were also Divine events at The Wellington in Boscastle and Widmouth Manor in Bude. I’ll make sure there are more than four for Chocolate Week 2012!
thelittleloaf says
What a wondeful day of tasting – that white chocolate cheesecake looks particularly delicious. I didn’t make it down to Chocolate Unwrapped but have been eating lots of chocolate baked goods this week to celebrate, as well as a divine homemade chocolate ice cream with a salted caramel swirl. Chocolate week is wonderful, but really it should be celebrated every day 🙂
A Trifle Rushed says
What a perfect day. Beautiful tea rooms and chocolate in everyone! Wonderful.
C says
Sounds like you had a lovely day out and enjoyed celebrating chocolate week in your own way and finding new sources of chocolate joy in your neck of the woods!
I’m a little jealous of London dwellers, but not too much because I’d hate to live there!!!
PS I’m not ignoring your giveaway post, but am not commenting because I already have the book!!!
Karen S Booth says
FABULOUS post and gorgeous photos, made me homesick for Cornwall…..I lived at Morwenstow for a while before moving to Boscastle…I know all these places well and I MUST try that tea room when I am next down there!
Brilliant post!
Karen
Gloria says
Yummy absolutely yumm!! love the photos! gloria
The Caked Crusader says
Gorgeous photos in this post – and not just the cakes! Those windswept trees are incredible
Astra Libris says
Ohhh, your photos are gorgeous!! Thank you for telling me about Chocolate Week – very exciting news!! 🙂
Kath says
What a great post! What a wonderful day that sounds and what a nut case the rev. sounds! I love that windswept tree, what a fantastic photo.
Angie's Recipes says
Looks like you had a productive and fun day! Both cakes look really divine.